Institutional investors in AT&T, Verizon demand answers about spying

For years now, many Silicon Valley companies have attempted to be more transparent about corporate practices concerning legal government requests for user data. A handful of major firms, including Google, Yahoo, Twitter, and others, are actively fighting at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for permission to tell the public more about the types of US law enforcement orders that they must comply with.

Just last week, Google posted its latest transparency report, noting that US government requests for data (from local, state, and federal authorities) have reached 21,683 users between January through June 2013.

According to the ACLU, the AT&T shareholder proposal (PDF) is filed jointly with the The New York State Common Retirement Fund and Trillium Asset Management LLC, and the Verizon proposal (PDF) is filed with Trillium Asset Management LLC, Park Foundation, and CleanYield Asset Management. The telecom firms likely believe that they are safer if they do not say anything at all.

[S]taying silent as other industry leaders release transparency reports and take steps to reinforce a genuine commitment to privacy makes it appear that these companies have something to hide and presents serious financial and reputational risks. Consumers prefer companies whose information practices they know and can trust. It is already estimated that the risks of surveillance and lack of trust could cost the US cloud computing industry $21 billion to $35 billion in foreign business over the next three years. The Chief Privacy Officers at AT&T and Verizon have praised transparency as a goal, but it is time to back up those statements with action by releasing transparency reports.